Dimples baby gift store in Cedarhurst closing after 18 years

For 18 years, Cindy and Jeremy Merrill owners of Dimples in Cedarhurst, dedicated their lives to making sure babies received unique and thoughtful personalized gifts.

Dimples will be officially closing on July 31.

The Merrills, who live in Cedarhurst, founded Dimples in 2006, after their twins, Erin and Kayla were born. Cindy was going back and forth to Manhattan for baby items that were cute and personalized. Tired of that routine, her solution was to open her own store and model it after the ones in Manhattan that inspired her.

She found prime real estate in Cedarhurst, and opened Dimples. There was an existing Baby Gap that ended up closing in the same year that Dimples opened . She named the store Dimples after staring at her daughter Kayla and seeing her tremendous dimples. Dana Klinger was part of the original partnership, but left roughly after the first two years.

As the business grew, so did their family as a son, Sammy, came along, nearly a year a half after the twins.

“It’s a living breathing thing that you’re always attached to and now I just want to be able do things that I’m going to enjoy now,” Cindy said.

Although the business is closing, they are not leaving the community.

Cindy and Jeremy said that they poured their heart and soul into the business and are ready to explore different aspects of life and focus on them.

“I am retiring from retail, I feel I am ready for the next chapter in my life, I’m ready for me time,” Cindy said. 

“We met amazing people and we’ve done amazing with the community over the last 18 years, but we get to now spend time with our family,” Cindy added. “I want to explore other options, and to see what other things I want to be involved in.”

Being the only custom and specialty baby gifting store in the community, Dimples has had a major impact on the gifts given to babies and their families, and the Merrills believe they have raised the bar..

“We have kids whose parents were customers and now they’re buying gifts for their kids,” said Jeremy Merrill.

Customers rave about Dimples and cannot imaging the community without them.

“It’s been the most unique, comforting, heartwarming experience in the neighborhood with personalized care,” said Shari Shapiro. “It was really the only place where we’ve wanted to shop throughout the years.

“During the hard times the world was going through, Cindy and Jeremy always stepped up for not only themselves but the community at large and for all of Israel,” Shapiro added. 

The customers have become apart of the Merrill family and help take care of one another in times of need.

Cindy gives a special shout-out to Klinger who helped her open the store.

“We opened this business together, and we really didn’t know how the neighborhood would respond to us,” Cindy said.

Opening day is a memory that Cindy said that she will never forget and thinks of fondly.

Cindy recalls that the community found Dimples a welcoming place to be and customers would pop into the store even when not needing to buy anything.

“I live here so I’m not really saying goodbye, I’m just saying see you in town,” Cindy said. “It’s not goodbye, it’s see you on Central.”